In search of Team India

The Indian team, and its freshly re-appointed captain, have plenty of soul searching to do before they play their first game against New Zealand at Bulawayo on the August 26. It's time to admit that things have gone wrong before trying to figure out a course of corrective action. Not long ago, there was a ring of legitimacy, however thin, to their claim to being the No. 2 Test side in the world. Today, even the most ardent of their supporters will agree that they are closer to the bottom of the ladder than the top. The steady gains over fours years have been squandered abysmally in one year of lethargy and smugness.

The personnel have barely changed since India dominated a drawn series in Australia and comprehensively brushed aside Pakistan in Pakistan. But what should have been the stepping stones to greater heights, became the acme. Was too much made of these victories? Did India allow themselves to luxuriate in the past for too long and take their eyes off the future? Only the merely good look back at what they have achieved, the great look forward to what remains to be done. The truth is that India have regressed and have plenty of catch up on.

There are clear areas of concern. Some of the senior players have shown signs of wear and tear and those younger ones haven't delivered on promise. The medium pacers have been inconsistent, the spinners indifferent, a very few have taken their game to the next level, opting to cocoon themselves in a comfort zone instead. And worse, cracks have begun to appear within a team that for a few years derived great strength from unity. Greg Chappell, like every other coach, is no miracle worker. It's time for many members of this team need to look hard at themselves, and ask what they have really achieved.

Harbhajan Singh never fails to remind us that he is on the verge of taking his 200th Test wicket. But he must ask himself how many Tests he has won for India since that epic series against Australia where he displayed amazing control over spin and flight to take 32 wickets. India's petulant left-arm seamers, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, have to stop worrying about who gets the new ball, and whether the press are calling Irfan Pathan India's No. 1 fast bowler. They need to stay fit, and do the job day-in and day-out.

And what of the captain? Sourav Ganguly's greatest asset over the years has been the manner in which he has brought this team together. He has taken cockiness and arrogance and turned it into self-belief and passion. He has got the best out of young cricketers struggling to come to grips with what it takes to be successful at the highest level. But no captain can forever be behind players who have not yet discovered the commitment to being among the best in the world.

If Ganguly is heaving a sigh of relief that his return to the helm coincides with a series against a weak Zimbabwean team, he may have another thing coming. In many ways, he will be more on trial in this tour than ever before. India have literally wasted a year playing bad cricket, regressing from their position on the growth curve, worrying about issues that concern neither bat or ball. The time to stem the rot is now. And Ganguly has a chance to show that he is still the man for the job. His strength has never been tactical nous, but rather leadership. And now that his batting can hardly put him in a position where he leads from the front, it is in preparation the way he approaches nets, the way he tackles fitness, the way he puts team before all else.

And if Ganguly cannot do these things, his time will be up before he knows it. For his place in the team depends on the captaincy. If he were to lose that, he would almost certainly lose his place in the side. A stronger selection panel and one which thinks more about the long-term future than zonal quotas would perhaps have already taken the plunge and made a change at the top. But even this panel, and this board, which repeatedly claims it does not interfere in team selection, can only prop up someone for so long.

Indian cricket is in a state of denial at the moment, pulling in different directions, threatening to slip back into the dark ages where cliques split the team and board officials and selectors worked at cross purposes to the team. This team needs to forget all of that, and think only of winning. For sometimes success is the only catalyst that can turn a motley crew of strong individuals into a team. Motivators and coaches would suggest that team spirit should come first, and then success will follow, but experience teaches us that team spirit is too elusive a thing for a group of people to hold on to consistently. Success, on the other hand, is all embracing.